Alan Young Biography

Alan Young (born Angus Young 19 November 1919) is a British-born Canadian actor and voice actor best known for his role as Wilbur Post in the television series Mister Ed and as the voice of Scrooge McDuck in Disney films, TV series and video games. During the 1940s and 1950s, he starred in his own shows on radio and television.

Biography

Early life

Young was born Angus Young in North Shields, Northumberland, England, to John Cathcart Young, a shipyard worker, and Florence Pinckney, whose ancestors included a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. The family moved to Edinburgh, Scotland when Young was a toddler, and to West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada when he was six years old. Young came to love radio when bedridden as a child because of severe asthma. Near the start of his radio career, during World War II, Young attempted to enlist in first the Royal Canadian Navy, then the Canadian Army, but was rejected by both due to his poor health.

Career

Young became a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1944, he moved to American radio with The Alan Young Show, NBC's summer replacement for Eddie Cantor's show. He switched to ABC two years later, then returned to NBC.

Young's film debut was Margie (1946), and featured in Chicken Every Sunday (1949), and the television version of The Alan Young Show began the following year. After its cancellation, Young appeared in films, including Androcles and the Lion (1952). He had roles in two George Pal films, tom thumb (1958) and The Time Machine (1960).

He appeared in the episode "Thin Ice" of the NBC espionage drama Five Fingers, starring David Hedison. He is best known, however, for Mister Ed (1961"66), a CBS television show, in which he starred as Wilbur Post, the owner of Mr. Ed, a talking horse that would talk to no one but him, thus causing hilarious situations for Wilbur Post with his wife, neighbours and acquaintances. Young's television guest appearances include The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, St. Elsewhere, Coach, Party of Five, The Wayans Bros., Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (Episode: "Sweet Charity", playing Zelda's older love interest), USA High, Hang Time, ER and Maybe It's Me.

In 1993, Young recreated his role as Filby for the mini-sequel to George Pal's The Time Machine, reuniting him with Rod Taylor, who had played George, the Time Traveller. It was called Time Machine: The Journey Back, directed by Clyde Lucas. In 2002, he had a cameo as the flower store worker in Simon Wells' remake of The Time Machine. In 2010, he read H.G. Wells's original novel for 7th Voyage Productions, Inc.

In 1994, Young co-starred in the Eddie Murphy film Beverly Hills Cop III. He played the role of Uncle Dave Thornton, the Walt Disney-esque founder of the fictional California theme park Wonderworld. Since 1994, he has played at least eight characters on the popular radio drama Adventures in Odyssey, most notably antique dealer Jack Allen.

Animation

During the later part of his career, he founded a broadcast division for the Christian Science Church and did voices for animated cartoons. Since 1983, he has voiced Scrooge McDuck in numerous Disney films and in the popular series DuckTales. He also portrays Scrooge in video games that he appears in, such as the Kingdom Hearts series and most recently in DuckTales: Remastered in 2013. In Mickey's Christmas Carol, he portrayed the character's miserly namesake.

He also provided the voice of Jack Allen on the Focus on the Family radio drama, Adventures in Odyssey and voiced Hiram Flaversham in Disney's The Great Mouse Detective. His other cartoon voice appearances include Camp Lazlo, Megas XLR, Static Shock, House of Mouse, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Duckman, Batman: The Animated Series, TaleSpin, The Smurfs, The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and as 7-Zark-7 and Keyop in Battle of the Planets. In 1997, he did the voice of Haggis McMutton in the PC game, The Curse of Monkey Island.

Personal life

Young was married twice: first to Mary Anne Grimes in 1941 and divorced in 1947; they had two children. Later, he married the late Virginia McCurdy; she died in 2011; they had two children. Young currently lives in Laguna Niguel, California.

See also